The Tolkien Estate and Amazon have been successful regarding their lawsuit and infringing copyright claims over “The Fellowship of the King” fan book from Demetrious Polychron who first brought a lawsuit against Amazon.
Polychron first brought a massive $250 million lawsuit against the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in April of this year, claiming that Amazon’s TV series new Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, infringed the copyright of his book and stole ideas from him for the new series.
However, the US District Court dismissed his case, finding that Polychron’s own book was infringing and could not be used as the basis for a claim.
Details provided to Cosmic Book News include the Estate of JRR Tolkien has been successful in two lawsuits concerning the book named The Fellowship of the King by US-based author Demetrious Polychron.
Polychron published and commercially promoted the book, which he claimed to be “the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings.”
The Tolkien Estate filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to prevent The Fellowship of the King from being further distributed.
In Judgments issued by Judge Steven V. Wilson on December 14, the Court awarded the Tolkien Estate summary judgment on its claim, granting a permanent injunction that prevents Polychron from ever distributing any further copies of The Fellowship of the King, his planned sequels to that book, or any other derivative work based on the books of JRR Tolkien.
The judge also ordered Demetrious Polychron to destroy all physical and electronic copies of his book and to file a declaration, under penalty of perjury, that he has complied.
The Court also awarded attorney’s fees totaling $134,000 to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron’s lawsuit, which the Court found to have been frivolously and unreasonably filed.
Lance Koonce and Gili Karev of Klaris Law, New York, represented the Tolkien Estate.
The Estate’s UK solicitor, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, commented: “This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorized authors and publishers to monetize JRR Tolkien’s much-loved works in this way. This case involved a serious infringement of The Lord of the Rings copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the Estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions.”
